


Haircut

by SCphantom



Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Found Family, Gen, Pre-Canon, about how Ivy's hair is shorter in the series than it is in the flashback, and i put in angst, but it got long, could be read as carmivy but could be read platonicaly, i wanna know what happened to zach and ivy's parents, there's a happy ending though, this started off as something short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:00:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23264362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SCphantom/pseuds/SCphantom
Summary: Ivy's hair as a child was long.When her parents left, she willed herself to cut it as short as possible.She never could.Now, as Ivy and her brother travel the world with the elusive Carmen Sandiego, she finds herself more at odds with her own mixed feelings of her mom and dad. She feels she may never be able to let go.
Relationships: Ivy & Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep, Ivy & Zack (Carmen Sandiego), Ivy/Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep
Comments: 7
Kudos: 97





	Haircut

**Author's Note:**

> This started as a simple observation of Ivy's hair being longer in the Boston Tea Party Capper but being shorter the rest of the series. Then I threw in my own headcanon of Zach and Ivy's parents leaving them when they were kids, then got thinking about all the ways these kiddos were probably messed up. So here we are. Anything I write here is probably going to be counteracted in season 3 (if there is one), so read for your own enjoyment.

Ivy had never particularly cared about what her hair looked like.

Ever since she could remember, her red wavy hair had been parted down the middle and dropped just past her shoulders. Whenever it would grow to longer than that, her mom would sit her on a stool in their family’s small kitchen and snip the ends so it all laid evenly around her head. If Ivy was truly honest with herself, her fondest memories of her mother were the times her hair would be carefully trimmed so it would look practically identical to her mom’s. Of course, there weren’t too many fond memories of her mom to choose from, but Ivy was at least a little grateful that she had some form of motherly love as a girl. 

Trimming Ivy’s hair was really anything the mother of the house did for Ivy’s hair. The redhead remembered going to friend’s houses for sleepovers and having her friends show her how to braid and curl hair. Of course, none of the other girls knew it was because Ivy was never taught, they always just assumed their tomboyish friend had never bothered to ask. But Ivy did ask. She asked quite a lot. It was always met with a  _ Go away, I’ll show you later _ . Later never came, and Ivy’s parents left. 

It’s not like she had parent issues though; they had left her and her brother for nothing and never came back. Ivy had Zach, and that’s all she needed. She didn’t have any pent up aggression, or mixed feelings about the matter. She was fine.

It was  _ fine _ .

So, why was it so difficult to cut her hair? 

Not in the literal sense, of course. Her hair was wet and the scissors were poised against the fine red strands. Ivy’s long hair was constantly being stuck in Lydia’s geers and came with a hazard for being stuck in a motor. She knew it needed to be cut off to be more manageable, but no matter how hard she tried to will herself she couldn’t finish the deed. Even with the scissors open and ready to snip, Ivy found it hard to let go of the feeling of her mother combing her hands through her hair as she gently snipped red strands off the end. Somehow, by cutting her hair shorter than it had ever been before, she felt like she was letting go of her one good memory of her mom. 

It was stupid, the fact she could lift heavy objects with encredible ease, fight any punk who tried to cross her, or make an entire racecar from stratch, but couldn’t bring herself to cut ties with her  _ mommy _ . Heaving a sigh, Ivy braced herself against the bathroom sink, scissors still in hand. She stared into her reflection in the mirror, noting how she had been in the bathroom so long her hair and started to dry as waves started to form in her hair. Ivy didn’t like her mother, she  _ hated _ her mother and father for what they did to her and Zach. She looked so much like her mother, and she  _ hated _ it. 

Feeling a new sense of commitment, Ivy parted her hair to the side and raised the scissors to her hair once more, preparing to give herself a short pixie cut. Yet, she faltered again. Shakily, she brought the scissors to the hair at around mid-neck. Short enough to be out of the way, long enough to still feel close to her mom. Letting out a shaky breath, she squeezed her eyes tight;

And cut.

Ivy’s hair stayed shoulder length throughout her and her brother’s racing career. Every time she saw it getting too long, she would take her scissors and cut it short again. This routine didn’t make cutting her hair any easier, every time she put the scissors to her hair she would feel herself falter and want to grow it back out again. Ivy would then remind herself why she wanted to have her hair short, why she  _ needed _ her hair to be short, then cut her hair again. 

So her hair stayed like that when she and Zach met a caramel skinned red haired thief named Carmen Sandiego. And it stayed like that as they traveled with the woman in red, Ivy making gadgets to use all the way, Zach allowing hasty getaways, and Carmen stealing to prevent evil from stealing first. Being away from Boston allowed Ivy’s mind to wander far far away from her estranged parents, even though every time she needed a trim she felt as though she was back in Southie and felt the overwhelming need to have her mom help her cut the strands in the back.

The worst part of this whole situation for Ivy was how incredibly weak and vulnerable she felt whenever these feelings manifested. She wanted to hit a wall or break the scissors in two. She wanted to will these feelings away, and she wanted to swear out her mother so violently the woman would regret even having Ivy in the first place. But most of all, she wanted to be held by her mom once more, she wanted to feel her mom’s hands meticulously run though her hair one more time.

Of course, Ivy never told anyone how she was feeling. She was a Bostonian woman who grew up in Southie and raised her brother practically on her own, Ivy wasn’t exactly an open book on any matter of her heart. No one ever questioned Ivy taking a long time to cut a small amount of hair, Zach had just always assumed it takes a long time to cut hair. If Carmen suspected anything was wrong, she never brought it up. Well, never brought it up until recently. 

Ivy had gone a very long time without giving her hair a trim, part of bouncing between several countries hadn’t given her the adequate amount of time she had needed to cut it. It had gotten to the point that Ivy could tie her hair up into a tiny ponytail to keep it from getting in her way. Between not having enough time to cut it, and a healthy amount of pushing it off to avoid confronting feelings about her mother, Carmen finally had taken notice while they were in Nova Scotia, Canada on their latest heist.

“Your hair’s getting pretty long there Ivy.” Carmen had simply pointed out as they were settling into a small hotel room. Player’s latest intel had said that VILE wouldn’t be targeting a seafood harbor until later that evening, so the team had several hours before needing to even prepare for the caper.

Ivy, who had been fiddling with her latest gadget, was taken off guard by the question. She was barely able to weakly supply “I guess it is” before her loudmouth brother cut in.

“Aw that’s nothing! When we were kids in Boston, her hair was way longer. Right Ivy?”

Ivy simply shrugged, wanting to get off of the subject of her hair as soon as humanly possible. Carmen, being genuinely curious plus a little nosy about something Ivy was closed book about, had other plans.

“Really? I guess I’ve always pictured you with short hair.” Carmen leaned back in the hotel room chair, eyeing Ivy as she seemed to be hyperfocused on what she was doing.

“Nah, Ivy had super messy hair that went  _ everywhere _ . It grew super fast too, so our mom cut it for her.”

Ivy felt every single muscle in her body seize when her brother mentioned her mom, and Carmen’s well trained eye caught it. The inventor felt the latina’s eyes fixed on her as she tried to wire some cables in her lazer lipstick.

“So why’d you decide to cut it? Your mom cut it too short but you liked it anyway?” Carmen said casually, though Ivy could tell how carefully she was digging for intel.

There was a moment of silence, as Ivy thought Zach was going to answer for her again. Zach’s answer never came, and when Ivy looked up from what she was doing, she saw all eyes on her. Ivy swallowed shallowly, willing her voice to not shake.

“Oh, no. I, I cut it.” Ivy brought her gaze back on the lipstick’s electrical panel as she provided a short, “my hair just kept getting in the way so I cut it to be more manageable.”

Carmen provided a short hum in response, but before she was able to start a new line of questions, Zach cut in with his own thoughts. Something about going out to get something to eat, Ivy wasn’t paying attention. She wordlessly finished wiring her invention as she planned out how she could justify taking two hours to cut her hair later tonight. Tuning out Zach was a special talent Ivy had acquired from years of taking care of him. Something she couldn’t tune out was the hotel door swinging open then clicking shut. A quick glance up showed that Zach had left the room and Carmen was eyeing Ivy with unchecked curiosity.

“Where’d he go?” Ivy pointed towards the door.

“He wanted to go down to the hotel lobby to find snacks.” Carmen said, not taking her eyes off of her teammate, “I tried to tell him there are no snacks down there, so he’ll be a while.”

_ Great _

“Okay then.” Ivy carefully placed the lipstick case into a separate bag for safekeeping and quickly tried to find a different gadget to pour her time into.

“So why does it take you so long to cut your hair?” Carmen questioned from her hotel chair.

Ivy fidgeted uncomfortably on the edge of the bed she was sitting on. She should have been listening to her brother so she could have left the room with him.

“It doesn’t take me that long,” Ivy insisted, “it’s just hard to cut the back of your hair when you can’t see it.”

A partial truth, it does take longer to make your hair even all the way around when you can’t see the back of your head. Unfortunately, Carmen saw right through the partial truth, because a partial truth is half of a partial lie. 

“Okay, first of all, two hours is too long to spend on a haircut, I know because I used to cut my hair too. Second of all, I understand why you wouldn’t want Zach to help you, but” Carmen hesitated, looking away from Ivy for the first time since they got into the hotel room. Her voice softened a little as she continued, “I’m here if you need help with anything, including cutting the back of your hair.”

Ivy allowed herself to meet Carmen’s gaze, a little soft in the heart from her offer, “Thanks Carm’. I really do appreciate it.”

“Cool,” Carmen said, standing from her chair, “I have some scissors in my suitcase.”

Ivy blinked a couple times, “W-what?”

Carmen dug around in her suitcase for a little bit, “we can cut your hair right now. Go ahead and rinse your hair, I’ll be there in a second.”

Ivy felt a wave of nausea hit her. Nobody had ever cut her hair besides her mom, and now her friend was going to. She could barely cut her hair out of her own free will, there was very little chance her mom issues were going to let Carmen do it.

“That’s really nice Carm’, but we don’t have time. We have to go to the fish place soon!”

“We have plenty of time,” Carmen said, pulling a pair of scissors out of her suitcase, “we don’t have to start preparing for another four hours.”

“Carmen.” Ivy sighed, eyes darting around Carmen’s face as the thief turned around to face her. 

“Ivy.” Carmen echoed. She seemed to hold herself back from a question, opening her mouth but closing it again. Eventually, the curiosity in her must have won out, “Ivy, do your… mixed feelings about cutting your hair, do they have something to do with your mom?”

“No.” Ivy answered a little too quickly.

Carmen looked as if she was going to rebut that simple statement, when she was cut off by Player’s voice coming through her laptop on the computer.

“Carmen, we’ve got a problem.” Player looked into the computer monitor to see Carmen with scissors in her hand having a standoff with Ivy, “is this a bad time?”

“No, you’re fine. What is it kid?” Ivy asked before Carmen could probably say ‘yes’.

“It looks like VILE’s operatives are on the move early, how quickly can you be to the warehouse?”

“Ten minutes tops. We’re on our way.” Carmen said. 

Player’s image on the screen clicked off, leaving the two women alone again. Ivy was the first to break the silence.

“I’ll go get Zach and we’ll meet you outside.” She slung her bag over her shoulder.

“Wait a second.” Carmen stopped her as she made her way towards the door. Ivy heard her backpack open as Carmen slipped something into her bag. “I’ll meet you outside.”

There was an unspoken sentence after that, something akin to ‘and this conversation isn’t over’.

The harbor was eerily quiet in the chilly Canadaian winter. VILE’s hard drive had pinpointed a seafood warehouse near the docks as a target for a large scale robbery to destroy Nova Scotia’s economy. Carmen would go in and foil their plans, like she does, and Zach and Ivy would provide ground support like they always do. Zach made the wise choice of not questioning what happened in the hotel room while he was gone, so the siblings wordlessly waited in the car for Carmen to do her thing. 

Unfortunately, a small wrench was thrown in the plan.

Part of their heist was Carmen placing a small explosive on the exterior of the VILE helicopter so the operatives would be forced to leave on foot. The small explosive that Ivy was currently looking at sitting on the dashboard of the car. 

“Um, Carmen?” Ivy nervously said through the comms, “I hope you have another explosive with you.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t.” Carmen replied through grunts, as she was clearly fending off several VILE operatives.

Feeling particularly brave, Ivy tied her hair back into a ponytail and unbuckled her seatbelt. 

“I’m going in to give it to her.” Ivy left the car without hearing her brother’s protests. She slipped the explosive in her backpack and slid in the side entrance as Carmen had done. Quietly, she moved around the warehouse, following the trail of unconscious operatives the Scarlet Shadow had left behind. The further she moved through the sprawling warehouse, the stupider she felt. She had no idea where Carmen was, where  _ she  _ was, and had nothing to defend herself with. Spotting a clear staircase, Ivy made her way up to a catwalk that overlooked a large shipment area, one side of the extensive boathouse with large containers of fish, the other side open ocean where boats could dock. Glancing around the area and seeing no sign of her teammate, Ivy went to make her way back down the staircase.

“Hey! Who are you?” A shrill voice called from the end of the catwalk. A woman a little older than Carmen in a skin tight black and orange suit with heeled boots and sharp gloves like claws made her way down the catwalk towards her.

Ivy immediately pieced together that she was one of the specially trained operatives, which ment big trouble for her. 

“I could ask you the same question!” Ivy called back. 

The woman snarled.

“What are you doing here?” She asked, even more shrill than before.

“I work here!” Ivy called back.

Ivy could feel the woman’s eyes narrowing from behind the glowing mask. 

“The warehouse is closed, and you don’t sound too Canadian.” realization suddenly dawned on the woman as she caught a glimpse of Ivy’s bright red backpack, “you’re one of that little brat’s friends!”

“Uh oh.” Ivy managed to shudder out as the woman ran towards her with her nasty claws out. Ducking from the oncoming attack.  _ Just like protecting yourself from a punk in Southie _ Ivy told herself as she dodged another swipe of the woman’s claws  _ except the punk wants to kill you and has crazy sharp claws and spy training _ .

The woman swiped three more times at Ivy. When she slashed her claws a fourth time Ivy managed to grab her arm and throw her to the ground. The woman let out an angry yell as Ivy twisted her arm backwards to hold her down.

“Ivy!” A familiar voice called down from the ground floor.

“Carmen!” Ivy called back.

With a strong push from her legs, Ivy sent the angry lady far away from her as she dug through her bag.

“Here!” She called down, tossing the bomb towards Carmen, who caught it with ease. 

Carmen sent a beaming smile towards Ivy, but it quickly faded to horror.

“Ivy watch out!”

Before she could process what was happening, Ivy was pulled up off the ground by her small ponytail. She let out a yell in pain as she felt her legs dangle out from underneath her. Her eyes burned from unshed tears of pain, but her blurred vision was able to see she was being held by the hair over the railing.

“Give up the bomb Black Sheep!” The woman yelled from behind her, “Or I drop your friend.”

“Tigress stop!” Ivy heard Carmen yell from the ground floor. In the few months Ivy had known Carmen, she had never heard her sound so scared during a capper.

“Your choice! The fish or your girlfriend!”

If Carmen responded, Ivy didn’t hear it. As Tigress was talking, the redhead had noticed that the contents of her bag had spilt out on the catwalk. At the edge of the walkway, teetering on falling, was the object Carmen had put in her bag before she left the room. 

A pair of scissors.

Ivy looked back down at the ground floor. Carmen was putting the bomb on the floor. She was throwing the heist to save her. Ivy’s mother had never done anything for her, besides cut her hair. Here was Carmen, voluntary putting Ivy’s needs before anything else, and she had volunteered to cut her hair for her. 

Ivy rationally knew that motherly love was something that perhaps everyone wanted, and was something she definitely wanted. But what she had here, standing on the floor of a fish warehouse and outside sitting in a car in Nova Scotia, it was better than any motherly love she had ever known.

It was time to let go of what would never happen.

It was time to let go of her mom.

Reaching as hard as she could, Ivy gripped the scissors tightly in her hands as she brought them to the base of her ponytail. She could vaguely hear Carmen telling her to stop, but she really had only one thing on her mind. 

Aim for the water.

With a forceful snip of the scissors, Ivy felt herself drop towards the icy cold water of the Atlantic. If she hadn’t taken to swimming in Boston Harbor as a kid, she probably would’ve passed out from the icy chill of the water. Not to say the water wasn’t absolutely freezing, because it was. With enough work and help from the waves, Ivy found herself at the shore again. Zach and Carmen were both yelling her name, and Ivy couldn’t tell if they were absolutely livid or relieved. Either way, she let them lead her shivering form to the car, where it seemed the heater was already running and a blanket was wrapped ready to be wrapped around her shoulders. All she really wanted to do was go to sleep, but neither Zach or Carmen would let her, something about hypothermia or whatever.

Relief was the only word to describe how Ivy felt being able to change into dry clothes in their hotel room. As she changed in the small bathroom, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her once medium length hair was jaggedly cut from the snipping of her ponytail, the shortest part of her hair was now in a pixie cut, much like she had originally planned to cut it. Despite it being perhaps the worst haircut in the history of ever, it made Ivy smile. She felt more like herself than ever before.

Zach charged her with a bone crushing hug when she got out of the bathroom. It knocked the breath out of Ivy’s lungs a little, but she still hugged her brother back gingerly.

“Please never do that again,” Zach’s muffled voice came from Ivy’s shoulder, “only one of us can make stupid decisions and I’m not sure I can help myself some times.”

Ivy laughed at her brother’s acceptance of his own stupidity, “okay, I’ll save all the stupid for you.”

Zach pulled back and smiled, “okay, I'm going to find you something warm to drink. I couldn’t find the snack room earlier, but I will this time.”

Despite Ivy’s protests, Zach bounded out of the room gleefully to go help his sister. The redhead let out a soft chuckle at her brother’s antics before taking note of the room. Carmen had been wordlessly sitting on the edge of one of the beds, arms crossed, still in her red coat and hat. Her head was leaned down, so Carmen’s eyes were covered by the hat. Nervously, Ivy inched her way to where Carmen was sitting.

“I’m so sorry I almost blew the mission-” Ivy started to apologize, but was cut off by Carmen holding a hand up.

“Don’t.” She said simply. Ivy’s mouth snapped closed at Carmen’s tone. It clearly wasn’t angry, but Ivy couldn’t place exactly what it was either.

Mouth still closed, Ivy sat on the edge of the bed next to Carmen, staring at her own bare feet on the hotel carpet that looked like it was from the 80s. All was quiet until Carmen started to speak from underneath her hat again.

“When I trained for VILE,” She started, “we were always told to never get emotionally involved with our teammates. If they were put in danger in any way, it could cause the entire mission to go south, because we would run to their rescue.”

Ivy simply nodded, staring at Carmen’s bowed head. She wasn’t entirely sure where this was going, but she was still hanging on every word.

“I was good at it,” Carmen continued, “I was great at forgetting any relationships with my friends in sparring class. I was good at it,” Carmen hesitated, “until I met you and Zach.”

After a moment, Carmen took her hat off and set it in her lap. Ivy could see now that there were a few dried tear stains on Carmen’s face. She had been crying. Crying over her. Ivy swallowed heavily and stared at the floor again as Carmen continued.

“The mission went smoothly once you dropped.” Carmen stated, “I got the bomb on the helicopter and VILE left without another trace. The hardest part of that mission was waiting for you to come back to shore. If I was with VILE, we would’ve left you. But I’m not anymore, so I got to wait.”

Ivy felt her face getting pulled to meet Carmen’s again, this time looking in Carmen’s grey eyes so vibrant they’re dusty purple.

“Don’t apologize for almost throwing the mission, because you reminded me today why we’re so much better than VILE.”

Ivy swallowed thickly, “why is that?”

“We get to wait for who we love.”

Feeling hot tears prick the back of her eyes, Ivy dove forward to give Carmen a big hug around the abdomen. Carmen reciprocated warmly, throwing her arms around her shoulders in response. In Ivy’s entire time with her parents, neither of them had ever said they loved her. The only person who ever did was her brother. Today, Ivy had felt more love than she had ever before. Hesitantly, Ivy pulled her face away from Carmen.

“I lied earlier.” Ivy confessed.

Carmen’s dark red eyebrows knitted together in confusion, “about what?”

“You asked if my mixed feelings about my hair came from my mom, but I said no.” Ivy looked down, “that was a lie, they do.”

Carmen remained silent, nodding her head to allow Ivy to elaborate. The younger untangled herself to sit forward again as she explained.

“I’ve never talked about it to anyone, not even Zach.” Ivy interwove her fingers nervously, “It’s dumb, my parents were… not nice to either Zach or me. But the one good memory I have of them was when my mom would cut my hair. Our hair looked exactly the same, I felt like her kid when she did it, not some annoying parasite like she described.” Ivy could feel hot tears pressing on the back of her eyes “so when they left and I started working on cars, I knew I should cut my hair because it kept getting caught and being in the way, but cutting it off felt like leaving her for good, but at the same time I looked so much like her.” The room continued to be very blurry as Ivy willed herself to continue without letting out the ten or so pent up years of emotion from spilling out of her eyes, “so every time I cut my hair I see her, and I feel her and she’s so hard to get rid of.”

Her voice cracked on the last word as the tears she fought so hard to push away finally started to spill from her eyes. Her breathing became a little hitched, but soothed out when she felt fingers run through her short hair. Ivy couldn’t help leaning into Carmen’s touch as the thief's fingers ran through the damp hair.

“So why tonight?” Carmen asked, “why were you able to do it tonight?”

Ivy shrugged, “seeing you throw your mission for me. That’s more than either of my parents would even think of doing,” Ivy looked at Carmen who appeared to be bleary eyed at what was happening too, “I guess I realized I have something better than whatever she gave me.”

There was a comfortable pause as the two women basked in each other’s words. Carmen broke the silence first.

“Your hair is super uneven now.”

Ivy laughed as she touched the longer tendrails in the front, “yeah that’s what I get for cutting the ponytail off like Mulan.”

“Who?”

“Nevermind”

“Okay,” Carmen paused, seeming contemplating her next words carefully, “there’s no pressure, but if you wanted, I could help you make it even.”

Ivy flushed at the offer, eager to accept, before remembering the watery grave she threw the scissors in as she fell, “that would be great Carm, but I dropped the scissors, there at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean now.”

“Actually,” Carmen reached in one of the pockets of her trench coat. She pulled out the purple pair of scissors, “they fell on the warehouse floor when you fell. I’m not entirely sure why I picked them up, but I’m glad I did.”

Ivy smiled at her teammate, her friend, “okay, let’s do it.”

Ivy still doesn’t particularly care what her hair looks like. Her short pixie cut parted down the side kind of does whatever it wants to do. But now, she doesn't struggle when it’s time to cut it. She’ll sit on the edge of a bathtub in a hotel in some far off country as her friend will snipp it to size. Carmen and Zach and Player won’t leave, she feels love. The scissors come to the thin strands of orange red hair, a breath of relief escapes her lips as her eyes relax shut.

And Carmen cuts.


End file.
